|
It is a myth that strangers most often abuse
children. By far the vast majority of maltreated children
are victimized by those who are familiar to the child and
who have ready access to the child. Relatives of the child
are most often the perpetrators of child abuse. In particular,
parents make up the majority of child abuse perpetrators.
Approximately 80% (79.9%) of perpetrators were parents. Of
the parents who were perpetrators, more than 90% (91.5%) were
biological parents, 4.2% were stepparents, and 0.7 percent
were adoptive parents. Other relatives accounted for an additional
6.7%; unmarried partners of parents accounted for 3.8% (USDHHS-ACF,
2008).
Courtesy of the Children's Bureau, Administration
for Children and Families, US Department of Health and Human
Services (2008)
Female perpetrators, mostly mothers, were typically
younger than male perpetrators, who were mostly fathers. The
median age for women perpetrators was 31 years; for men, it
was 34 years. Women also comprised a larger percentage of
all perpetrators than men, 57.9% compared to 42.1% (USDHHS-ACF,
2008). Nearly 76 percent of all perpetrators of sexual abuse
were friends or neighbors and 30 percent were other relatives.
Less than 3 percent of parental perpetrators were associated
with sexual abuse (USDHHS-ACF, 2008).
The racial distribution of perpetrators was
similar to the race of their victims. During 2006, more than
one-half (53.7%) of perpetrators were White and one-fifth
(20.7 %) were African-American. Approximately 20% (19.5%)
of perpetrators were Hispanic (USDHHS-ACF, 2008).
More than one-half (60.4%) of all perpetrators
were found to have neglected children. Slightly more than
10 percent (10.3%) of perpetrators physically abused children,
and 7.0% sexually abused children. Almost 12% (11.5%) of all
perpetrators were associated with more than one type of maltreatment
(USDHHS-ACF, 2008).
In Iowa in 2006 there were 19,695 substantiated
perpetrators of child maltreatment, of these 14,355 were the
parents of the child(USDHHS-ACF, 2008).
Continue to Dos
and Don'ts Regarding Talking with Children about Possible
Abuse or Maltreatment
|
